


Tea With a Fascinating Friend

by meme_inspired



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Age Difference, Consensual Sex, F/M, First Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:11:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meme_inspired/pseuds/meme_inspired
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tea was always a good idea. Dating someone who could be your granddaughter was more questionable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea With a Fascinating Friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Imkerin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imkerin/gifts).



Toph had been acting oddly this trip. She came by Ba Sing Se often enough, just dropping in to chat, drink tea, and smile at Iroh's gentle jokes, though with a full helping of her own teasing that he needed to get some better ones. This time, she showed up in jade and gold jewelry, with a hint of makeup on that clearly she'd either been practicing or gotten help with, and she kept a secretive little smile to herself.

"What do you suppose is going on with Toph?" he asked his nephew. "Do you suppose she's found someone here in Ba Sing Se?"

Zuko and Toph had traveled together this time, and the Firelord had traded in his red silk robes for the easy browns and greens of Earth Kingdom wear. He looked far less highborn than Toph did.

He glanced at the back corner where Toph was drumming her fingers against the tabletop, that in itself a surprising indicator of politeness. In the years Iroh had known her, she was much more likely to tuck her feet up on said table than use only fingers.

"You're right, Uncle." Zuko turned back to Iroh with a smile. A devious smile.

Iroh blinked.

"I think she has a crush on you."

"What?!"

Toph chose that moment to trail up to the front and stop in front of the counter, cheery expression on her face as she bent metal coins onto the counter in payment.

"You're quite good at that," Iroh complimented her warmly. He'd known Toph since she was a child. Zuko had to be wrong.

But she'd grown up while he hadn't been paying attention, and he couldn't deny that either. Her baby fat was gone. She'd gotten as tall as he was, filling out into a womanly shape he'd previously managed to not pay attention to. Her voice had dropped into something softer and warmer, even when she was still saying some of the most outrageous things, and her silky black hair, always a little wild and falling into those soft green eyes, couldn't hide that she'd become stunningly beautiful in an Earth Kingdom way.

"Thanks," she answered with a smile sweeter and more inviting than the knuckle-cracking grin she still broke out from time to time. "Hey, I was wondering, would you like to go out sometime?"

Iroh felt his own eyes grow wide as he stared at Toph's bright-faced smile, completely taken aback.

Zuko was apparently not as dumbstruck. He clapped an arm around Iroh's shoulder and answered just as brightly. "He'd love to."

"Great!" Toph's smile broadened into a happy grin. "I'll meet you out front after closing." She practically skipped to the door.

Iroh turned his stare on Zuko, who looked entirely too pleased with himself at his uncle's expense. "She could be my granddaughter!"

"But she isn't," Zuko pointed out unhelpfully. "Go on," he said, mirroring another date years ago in Ba Sing Se. "Have fun."

It was perhaps the first time Iroh genuinely regretted his previous meddling in Zuko's social life.

* * *

Toph took him to a little clearing comfortably hemmed in with trees and rocks where the view of Ba Sing Se would only be described as lovely. She'd also clearly prepared with her own small fire and a familiar setup that harkened back to their first meeting.

He found himself chuckling as he settled onto the comfortable seat she had doubtless earthbent. "We left a tea shop to have tea."

Toph smirked back as she poured. "Tea with a fascinating friend is one of life's true delights," she volleyed back at him in an amended quote.

"Fascinating? Hmm." He accepted his teacup with a modicum of composure while Toph sat back and grinned at him.

For all Toph preferred to teach in Republic City, she had yet to formally settle down and had visited often over the years. She'd always had a certain fondness for the Jasmine Dragon and its proprietor, as he also had for her. So he'd come to have expectations for Toph's behavior.

He expected the grin, the expression on her face that somehow gave the same impression as another's eyes dancing with mischief or amusement, but he'd also expected her customary sprawl of limbs over stone and arms crossed behind her head in affected casualness. Today, she was casual but properly upright with her hands on her own teacup and, if he wasn't mistaken, a slight hesitance she was doing an excellent job of trying to hide. Of course, there was also the disconcerting additions of subtle makeup, understated jewelry, and the absence of her usual dusting of earth.

All of this was adding up to exactly he picture he'd gotten when she'd asked him on this outing, and he still felt baffled at how best to address it.

"I'm sure you don't have anything more to learn about me," he said, chuckling softly in his own attempt to keep things casual. "I'm quite uninteresting."

A snort of very typical Toph derision told him that approach wouldn't be very effective. She waved a hand dismissively. "You're more interesting than half the men in Republic City who think they're the greatest leaders since the Avatar."

Iroh sighed after a long moment. He sipped his tea, reaching for words that didn't seem to want to come together. "I'm not sure this is a good idea."

"What? Tea?"

"Tea is always a good idea," he disagreed. What better to calm the mind for talking about this sort of thing. "We are at different seasons in our life," he began leadingly.

"So?" Toph furrowed her brow. "What's wrong with a big age difference anyway? Some of your ancestors married women half their age."

"Well, yes," Iroh admitted, but frowned. "They weren't the kind of men I'd recommend."

She stared in his direction blankly. "Because…"

"They showed little respect for those women."

"Oh." Toph's puzzlement smoothed out again into complacency. "I already know you respect me."

Iroh sighed and set his empty cup beside hers. "You are young. You have your entire life ahead of you. I am… old."

Toph hmphed. "Do you think it will hurt me any less when you die if this doesn't happen?" she asked quietly. "You're my friend. You were always my friend."

And he'd almost died the very day he met her.

His voice was softer when he agreed, "And you mine."

The warmth lasted for only a moment before she crossed her arms and demanded, "So what's the problem then? Am I really unattractive? I'm not a lady but—" She shrugged. Acting like a lady was something she knew how to do and deliberately eschewed.

"You've grown into a beautiful young woman," Iroh said easily.

"You don't have to sound so fatherly about it." Toph sniffed and blew a thick strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Are you sure you know what you're asking?"

"I know what I want," she said, all mulish and pure Toph scowl.

It struck him with a note of surprise that she was right. She had grown up and did know what she did and did not want with a certainty that went far deeper than Zuko's ever had, even when he'd been so sure of himself.

"Yes, you do," Iroh answered aloud. He looked at her again, her unfocused green eyes widening slightly, yet they didn't give her that innocent look of _so young_ he'd seen so many times. She wasn't a little girl any more.

Then she smiled, small and smug, and poured herself another cup of tea. "Just think about it."

* * *

"So have you thought about it?" she asked brightly before barely another whole day had passed.

"You remind me of Zuko," Iroh commented dryly. "So impatient."

Zuko only looked somewhat put upon, since he was in the middle of serving a customer and had to seem friendly. One day, he'd learn to actually be friendly, but this was not that day.

Toph huffed. "I'm not _that_ much like him."

"Well, you are different people." He chuckled easily, but Toph didn't join in as she often did.

"You love _him,"_ she pointed out.

Zuko nearly choked on his cough. He handed off the coins he'd collected and ordered them both, _"Don't_ talk about this stuff around me."

"We could always go elsewhere." Toph batted her eyelashes innocently as if she hadn't just suggested something so inappropriate.

But as bad of an idea as it might have been, Zuko shoved them both in the right direction for _away_ and said, "I've got this covered."

* * *

Iroh took them up to his rooms above the shop. He had in fact been thinking about her proposition a great deal. "Are you sure you're not asking me because I'm comfortable to you?"

And familiar and one of the first unrelated males she'd connected with that didn't have a crush on or relationship with someone else.

But Toph just shot him a casual grin. "I've had eight offers from guys my age in Republic City in the last year." A faint wistful note entered her voice. "I even liked one of them. But well…" Her voice trailed off with her shrug.

It was a little reassuring in a way he hadn't entirely expected, that he wasn't merely some consolation prize or safe choice for someone like Toph, who sometimes preferred safe and comfortable when he least expected it. And he wasn't so young as he once was. Perhaps there was a bit of ego involved as well.

"I know what I want," she repeated without sullenness this time, just quiet and firm.

It was flattering to have that directed at him, now that he'd had a little time to get used to the idea.

"It's been a long time for me," he said, with a small chuckle. "You might find me disappointing."

Her face lit up with a bright smile as she caught the implication in his words. She waved her hand dismissively. "Not going to happen."

* * *

It didn't happen. Toph couldn't get bored with Iroh any more than she'd get bored with earthbending. So she showed up to the tea shop to chat and smile and make Zuko eye her warily lest she start talking about things he didn't want to know about, and oh how she teased him when Iroh wasn't listening! It was fun, right up until Zuko pointed out he'd be heading back to the Fire Nation and did she want to hitch along for the return trip as well?

"Ugh. Let me think about it."

He read her the note from Mai with an ultimatum on his return. "Just let me know soon."

As in within a couple days.

Toph scowled in Zuko's general direction. She hadn't done everything she wanted to with Iroh yet, but Zuko _was_ the most convenient way of getting to and from Ba Sing Se.

* * *

"You don't have to go back to Republic City," Iroh pointed out, his voice all gentle and rumbly and deep the way she'd always liked.

But Toph was already shaking her head before he'd finished the sentence. "That's where my school is. Though I'll come by again." She always did. And Iroh didn't have to know that she wouldn't mind staying two or three more weeks longer than she really could.

She sighed and pulled her feet off the table to blow her ticklish hair back off her nose with a sigh. "What I really wanted to ask was if we could have sex?"

The way his feet and hands stilled against the stone floor and counter amused her a little bit. Every so often, she still caught him off guard by being direct.

But, "I suppose we could," he agreed.

And that made her stomach do flips and excitement buzz under her skin at the same time. "Great."

* * *

She had one hand pressed up against the wall, good earth and stone she could _see_ through and Iroh's tangled with hers so she could sense the shape of him on the bed. With her other hand, she ghosted curious fingers over his shoulders and chest. He hadn't entirely lost the muscle he'd built up at the end of the war, though she found the soft places just as interesting. Smooth skin and soft thick hair from his beard spilling over it. She leaned down closer and could feel the warmth coming off his skin.

She hovered for a moment, hands hesitant before she felt his wrap gently, _warmly_ around her wrists. There was a faint note of concern in his voice as he asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah." Her voice came out small and dry. She was nervous and she shifted a little only to remember, vividly, she was sitting on top of him.

But she'd felt something else too, his breath catch and his body tense. So she shifted again and rocked her hips against his. It both shocked her the sensation that shot through her and pleased her at the way Iroh responded as if he'd felt the same. He pulled her down a little closer and pushed back, and wow, that felt good.

"Why did I never try this before?" she asked, a sudden giggle bubbling up.

And there were Iroh's hands, gentle and warm and reassuring as he pulled her in a little closer and ran them over her hips, up her back soothingly for a moment, then warm over her front and her breasts and...

Toph leaned forward, breath coming short and pressed her face into the crook of his neck to hide the heat in her cheeks.

"I've got you," he murmured in her ear and she believed him, even if every touch was making her more breathless and tightening something inside her and she felt wetness where she'd pressed against him. It made her squirm and gasp a little and press her palm more firmly against the wall as if it could possibly ground her.

She felt like she could barely hear him over how loud her heart was in her ears or her breath as it came harsh and fast. His hand was gentle between her legs, rubbing something far more sensitive than anything else, and she pushed against the touch only to realize she was rubbing against his arousal. She let go of the wall and clung to him as he murmured gentle nothings in her ear she couldn't even process while her body arched and white hot pleasure crashed through her.

She came down gasping and hot and uncertain. "Did you...? Was that...?"

"Yes." He held her close, that low voice rumbling through her just the way she liked.

She sighed and sank down against him and grinned.


End file.
